Palestinian
Toddler Gunned Down by IOF
Palestine Media Center
08 May, 2003
A Palestinian toddler was
killed Wednesday when Israeli tanks opened fire at residential neighborhoods
in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.
Witnesses said Elian Bashiti,
18 months old, was hit in the head by a bullet and later died at a local
hospital.
Palestinian witnesses said
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired at a neighborhood in Khan Younis,
and that the boy was in his house when he was hit.
Medical sources said al-Bashiti
sustained serious-to-critical wounds and died a few hours after he arrived
to the hospital.
An IOF spokesperson claimed
that Israeli occupation soldiers at an outpost guarding a nearby illegal
Israeli settlement had come under fire from Palestinians and returned
fire.
Later, a statement published
in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the IOF admitted killing Bashsiti
and described the toddlers death as a very unfortunate incident,
but the soldiers were forced to fire at the source of the shooting.
Hundreds of Palestinian children
and babies have been either killed or injured by Israeli occupation
army gunfire since the Palestinian Intifada against occupation erupted
more that 31 months ago.
Later, another Palestinian
identified as Ahmed Jouda, 18, was shot by IOF in northern Gaza.
No immediate details were
available on the circumstances of his death.
Also in the Gaza Strip, a
Palestinian woman critically wounded during an Israeli military raid
on Khan Younis last week, died of her wounds Thursday in Gaza City,
Palestinian medical sources said.
Ikram Eqdeh, 22, died in
Gazas Shifa hospital, the sources added.
In the West Bank, another
Palestinian was killed in a mysterious explosion in a house in Zawata,
a village near the city of Nablus.
However, Palestinians described
the killing of 28-year-old Amin Fadel as an assassination by Israel.
According to reports, the
blast went off at about 8:30 A.M. and that according to the mayor of
Zawata, Israeli occupation troops had imposed a curfew on the village
several hours before the explosion.
Israeli army sources denied
any involvement adding that the explosion was probably a work
accident, a term describing a bomb that went off prematurely.
Israel has launched numerous
attacks targeting Palestinian activists during the 31-month Intifada,
killing many of them.
Israeli occupation army used
various methods in killing the activists, including air-to-surface missiles,
special assassination squads, or even bobby trapped devices and many
by passers were killed during these attacks, according to Palestinian
security sources.
12,000 Palestinians Made
Homeless
by Israeli Demolition Spree
In another matter, the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said
Wednesday that the total number of Palestinians made homeless by Israelis
military demolition campaign climbed above 12,000 this month following
a rapid acceleration of the Israeli demolition policy in Gaza during
the first quarter of this year.
Since the beginning of the
Intifada in September 2000 until April 30 2003, a total of 12,737 people
had seen their homes demolished in Gaza and the West Bank.
According to UNRWA, recent
months have seen a sharp increase in house demolitions in the Gaza Strip.
Until the end of 2002, total
and partial demolitions had averaged fewer than 30 per month.
In the first three months
of 2003, 221 homes were demolished or damaged beyond repair -- making
an average of 74 per month. These alone housed 401 families or about
2,273 persons.
UNRWA has so far been able
to complete only 158 new shelters for homeless families and is working
on 160 more.
A further 471 houses, including
those destroyed during Israeli occupation armys massive invasion
of Jenin in April 2002, are at the planning and design stage.